This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Cobourg-area farm transformed into family’s getaway

The couple was, in fact, looking for a cottage where they could spend summers with their two daughters. But after checking out properties on various Muskoka lakes, the cons outweighed the pros: high cost, no land, short period of use and next-door neighbours as close as they are in the city.

NOW: Jim Sleeth and Dana Sinclair sit at the wall of windows overlooking their country property as daughters Morgan, left, and Hunter relax while Lab Gryff strolls by. (Mike Chajecki)

NOW: Corrugated tin cladding and black aluminum windows in the new addition were chosen to blend with the vintage charm of the original brick house. (Mike Chajecki)

Cats left paw prints in the 1867 bricks that have been re-used in the home's new addition. Owner Jim Sleeth says when they discovered the miniature sculptures, they turned the bricks to reveal the prints on about 10 of them: "What was a flaw in 1867 became art when we renovated." (Mike Chajecki)

So they started thinking farms — Sleeth had happy memories as a kid spending weekends and summers on his family’s farm north of Cobourg. Around the same time, his father decided to sell the 50-acre farm with its lovely, red brick, 1867 farmhouse. So Sleeth and Sinclair bought it, as well as the adjacent 17-acre hardwood lot, and two nearby parcels.

“It’s a real working farm,” Sleeth says of the property he and Sinclair bought about six years ago. “We have hay in all fields, some acres are leased to beef farmers. My parents bought the 50 acres with original red brick house in 1979, that’s how long I’ve been coming here.

“My parents did the same thing as we did — they didn’t want a cottage, which you can only use eight weeks a year, and you don’t get much land and the cottages are close together.”

Article Continued Below

The Confederation-era farmhouse needed a lot of work and, without a heritage designation, the couple could have torn it down. But they loved its typical southern Ontario features: big front porch, peaked gable in the front, wide plank floors, high ceilings, deep window sills and beautifully proportioned rooms.

THEN: The old 1970s extension had replaced an original summer kitchen built outside the farmhouse to help reduce the risk and spread of fire. (Jim Sleeth)

So they installed new bathrooms, energy-efficient aluminum-clad windows, restored the original hardwood floors, and freshened up the colours over a four-month stretch.

A few years later, after getting used to the space over summers and weekends, they tore down the 1,500-square-foot 1970s addition that had replaced the original summer kitchen and rebuilt it, on the same footprint, over the course of nine months. It had to be modern, but with materials that would seamlessly integrate heritage and new.

“We love both old and modern architecture, especially when they exist side by side,” Sleeth says. “We’ve seen it done very successfully in European cities, as well as Toronto.”

They hired an architect for the drawings, then Sleeth acted as general contractor to execute them, leaving Toronto at 5 a.m. to arrive at the farm in time to get everything organized and then return to the city for work at Human Performance International, the sports psychology and performance firm he and Sinclair own and operate.

Once the single-storey addition was framed, they knocked out the rear wall of the farmhouse — saving the old wood and bricks. A new chef’s kitchen straddles the old and new, with one side open to the new family room and home theatre area, and the other side with a secret door to the heritage part of the home.

NOW: A combination of modern and traditional makes a dramatic statement in the dining room. (Mike Chajecki)

A breezeway at the end of the addition leads to Sinclair’s office that can be closed off with two outside doors. As a noted professional sports psychologist — Sinclair has worked with teams in the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB — “she needs to make quiet, confidential calls,” Sleeth says.

Article Continued Below

There’s also a master bedroom in the addition, freeing up the bedrooms in the heritage building for their daughters, — or for the out-of-town guests and clients who sometimes stay.

Exterior materials have been chosen to blend with the old building: black aluminum windows in the addition come from the same manufacturer that produced those in the heritage home, and corrugated tin cladding matches that at other local farms.

The addition is “clearly a contemporary-looking building,” explains Beth Lowenfeld, co-owner of Four Blocks South design and décor, “but it refers both to the heritage structure, and its location as a working farm. Those were two important features in terms of the exterior.”

Colour goes a long way in smoothing the transition between the two spaces, says Lowenfeld. Only Farrow & Ball paints were used because of historically correct palette, although more contemporary shades were chosen.

The views all around — but especially from the addition at the back — are magnificent, Sleeth says. “In winter, it’s beautiful out there, the sweep of fields blanketed in snow and the woods in the distance.”

Also visible from the house is the half-acre pond, developed by the Ducks Unlimited organization, which attracts ducks and other wildlife. A neighbouring otter visited all last year, eating up all the trout they stocked, Sleeth says.

Although both their daughters are now at university, the farm remains the family’s oasis — as it was for Sleeth in his youth. During summer months, they’re at the pond, swimming and on paddle boards; in winter they skate. Hunter, 22, and heading to the U.K. for a masters program in publishing, is an avid horseback rider. Morgan, 20, is studying for her B.A. and on U of T’s field hockey team. The girls come by their sportiness honestly: Sinclair was captain of Canada’s field hockey team, and Sleeth was on the Canadian national canoe team and is a former assistant captain and coach of England’s Cambridge University Ice Hockey Team.

A chef's kitchen was built to straddle the old farmhouse and the modern addition. (Mike Chajecki)

Although the farm is a place of respite and retreat, it’s also where Sinclair and Sleeth hope to spend more of their working time. If it has the ability to calm them both, they know it will benefit some of their athlete clients, as well. They are working with architectural firm SuperKül on a separate lodging for visiting athletes. As well, they are spending more time at the farm writing a performance psychology app they will soon market.

“When we work in the office here, I look out on the green fields and it’s different, I have a clarity of thinking, and become more creative,” Sleeth says.

Sinclair feels the same. “An oasis is somewhere calm and relaxed where I can slow the pace down.”

And when she travels with teams, it’s not their house in Toronto that Sinclair yearns for but, rather, the peacefulness of the farm.

“When away, I have an image in mind — the fields, the rolling hills, the pond and getting cosy in that nice house.”

CONFEDERATION CATS

After removing a wall in their farmhouse to connect a new extension, Jim Sleeth and Dana Sinclair opted to re-use the original wood and bricks.

They found a hidden, and charming, surprise.

“When the bricks for the house were fired on-site in 1867, cats would walk across them as they cooled in the molds in the evening,” says Sleeth. “When we renovated, and had all of the bricks off the back of the house, we found the prints.”

Delighted with the secret sculptures, they turned the bricks so the prints would be visible.

“What was a flaw in 1867 became art when we renovated,” he adds.

Cats left paw prints in the 1867 bricks that have been re-used in the home's new addition. Owner Jim Sleeth says when they discovered the miniature sculptures, they turned the bricks to reveal the prints on about 10 of them: "What was a flaw in 1867 became art when we renovated." (Mike Chajecki)

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com